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JERUSALEM— Israel fired a missile into Syria in what the military described as a “warning shot,” after a stray mortar shell fired from Syria landed near an Israeli military post in the Golan Heights. It was the first time Israel fired into Syria since the civil war erupted there more than a year and a half ago.

Fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels has been moving closer to Israeli-controlled areas of the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria during the Middle East war of 1967.

Israel says it is not being deliberately targeted by Syrian forces. But at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel will not allow the Syrian civil war to spill across the northern boundary.

Netanyahu said Israel is closely watching the situation and is prepared for any eventuality.

Violence has also surged on Israel’s southern border with the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas. Palestinian militants bombarded southern Israel with rockets, sending families to bomb shelters and shutting schools. Israel retaliated with airstrikes which the army said targeted weapons facilities.

The violence began Saturday when a Palestinian anti-tank missile blasted an Israeli army jeep on the Gaza border.

Prime Minister Netanyahu said Palestinian attacks from Gaza will not be tolerated.

Netanyahu said “Israel will not sit idly by” when its citizens are attacked, and he warned that the army is prepared “to escalate its response.”

Hamas was defiant. The group’s spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, said the Palestinians would “teach Israel a lesson.”

Barhoum told Hamas television that Israel is “shooting at Gaza day and night and killing women and children.” He said “resistance is our right.”

Despite the warnings, both sides have signaled that they do not want an escalation like the one that sparked Israel’s invasion of Gaza nearly four years ago and caused massive destruction. But with tit-for tat attacks across the border, neither side is backing down.

Afghan officials and human rights organizations assert that Pakistani authorities are using deadly attack at school in Peshawar as pretext to push out Afghan refugees More

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by: Budlang from: USA

November 12, 2012 2:46 PM

It seems the general opinion in the media and world politics is that Israel should take the continual shelling from Gaza and just smile in return. It kind of reminds me of how the US currently thinks in its approach to our enemies. Just be nice enough to them and they will do the right thing. Ha! Good luck with that.Hooorah for Israel

by: Anonymous

November 12, 2012 1:56 PM

hey, US/Israel/Europe... its time you understand that this is a war... a war of extermination... its time you started to inflict some real damage on the enemies of Humanity... you are fighting an Islamic ideology of hatred and genocide... of subversion and inhumanity... your appeasement and attempts to "dialogue" is viewed with contempt and ridicule in the Muslim world... and it guarantees a consolidation of Islamic countries against you... listen to what Morsi is saying about you in Arabic... listen to the instruction given to all Muslims in Christian lands the المهاجرون the so called "immigrants"... they learn to use all your "liberties" against you... look at Abu Qatada... - read his case... it is a real war... Muslims are learning to use all your freedoms to subvert and destroy you from within... you must learn to listen to the Muslims in Arabic... its very different from what their "spokesmen" tell you in English... they will use every advantage to undermine your cohesion, saw doubts and hesitation in your population - if you think Judeo/Christian civilization is worth saving - learn to recognize the Islamic assault on you - because it is a WAR!!! and it does not distinguish between civilians and soldiers... everyone is a legitimate target...

In Response

by: Hadil Baak from: Lebanon

November 12, 2012 8:29 PM

I am ashamed to say, but this is very true. This is the most accurate assessment of the intention of Islam and Muslims in the west I have ever read here.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that his country could face further consequences to what he called its “already strained economy” if Moscow does not fully comply with a cease-fire in Ukraine. The two met, on Monday, on the sidelines of a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, where Kerry outlined human rights violations in Russian-annexed Crimea and eastern Ukraine. VOA State Department correspondent Pam Dockins reports from Geneva.

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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has told his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, that his country could face further consequences to what he called its “already strained economy” if Moscow does not fully comply with a cease-fire in Ukraine. The two met, on Monday, on the sidelines of a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, where Kerry outlined human rights violations in Russian-annexed Crimea and eastern Ukraine. VOA State Department correspondent Pam Dockins reports from Geneva.

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